Glider

Charles E. Kohls, who trained hundreds of the Army pilots who flew gliders in the D-Day 1944 invasion of France, died at Universal Medical Center in Plantation on Saturday. He was 75. Mr. Kohls was one of only 11 commercial glider pilots selected by the Army Air Corps at the beginning of World War II to teach recruits how to fly the engineless aircraft. He taught in Elmira, N.Y., Alabama, and at the main center in Twentynine Palms, Calif. The pilots he taught later flew airborne troops and cargo into France as the Allies launched Operation Overlord, the invasion of France`s Normandy coast, against the Germans on June 6, 1944.

Gates pessimistic on Iran deal - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and a conservative official in Tehran found something they could agree on Saturday, as each dismissed the Iranian foreign minister's suggestion that a deal was close on Iran's nuclear program. Gates said he was disappointed in Tehran's response to a months-old proposal backed by the Obama administration in which Iran would exchange a limited quantity of low-enriched uranium for fuel plates for a Tehran medical reactor.

BAKER, Calif. -- Once aloft, glider pilots quickly learn to take whatever cards Mother Nature deals, and sometimes the fickle wind lands them in unusual places. Like the day a sandstorm was pounding the desert hamlet of Baker when glider pilot Larry Ortega flew his silver plane out of the dark sky and executed a bumpy landing in an empty field. Startled residents watched the plane come down in a jerking descent. It looked certain to crash. "The sand was blowing so bad I could just barely see from the building to the glider, and I was only a quarter of a mile away," said Sam Haines, a mechanic at the A-1 Garage.

Robert N. Buck, a distinguished pilot who in the 1930s crossed the continent at record speed, flew a light plane higher than anyone had done before and photographed ancient ruins of the Yucatan from the air for the first time -- all by the age of 20 -- died on April 14 in Berlin, Vt. He was 93 and had continued to fly gliders into his late 80s. Mr. Buck, a resident of North Fayston, Vt., died of complications of a fall, his son, Robert O. Buck, said...

Tom Hanson soared into the Lantana airport on Tuesday afternoon, finishing the third leg of a 1,700-mile flight from Denver. The 63-year-old adventurer made the solo trip in his latest vehicle, a GROB 109B motorized glider. A surge of spring snowstorms delayed Hanson`s flight to Palm Beach County Air Park for several days. But once he took off, Hanson flew his craft for 4 1/2, 6 1/2 and 5 hours in the next three days. "It was all easy, a piece of cake, a beautiful run," said Hanson, a winter resident of Delray Dunes west of Boynton Beach.

Sugar gliders are becoming extremely popular these days. Many owners have more than one of these amazing creatures. However, many people don't even know they exist. A sugar glider is a nocturnal animal. It's a member of the marsupial family, so it has a pouch for carrying its young. It was named for its desire for sweet things, and because it has a gliding membrane like flying squirrels. Sugar gliders come from Australia, Indonesia, Tasmania and Papua New Guinea. These animals aren't suitable pets for everyone.

Tiki Mashy, 36, a legal assistant from Lake Worth, has captured two world records in the sport of hang gliding, the Feminine World Distance Record and Distance to a Declared Goal Record. "I am so excited," Mashy said. "I called everyone on my cell phone when I knew I had it. I took my phone up with me." Mashy piloted her hang glider 219 miles from Hobbs Industrial Air Park in New Mexico to Quanah, Texas. She flew for six hours reaching altitudes of more than 15,000 feet. "It is a wonderful sport," Mashy said.

Pilot Sam Fine waited for the snatch. Then the towline jerked, signaling the start of the symbiotic relationship between the glider packed with troops and supplies and the massive cargo plane that would pull it from North Africa across the Mediterranean to Sicily. The two aircraft climbed together into the midnight skies of World War II, soaring for four hours guided by wit until the moonlight revealed the southern Italian island's coastline. Fine then released the cord. "Then we were on our own," said Fine, about 30 at the time, reliving minutes when his glider adeptly challenged gravity on July 10, 1943.

COLORADO SPRINGS -- Along the front range of the Rocky Mountains, where sailplanes soar on waves of air cascading over the towering ridgeline, aviators and meteorologists are stalking a rogue wind that might have spun a United Airlines jet into a crash on March 3, killing 25 people. With no other plausible theory to explain how an apparently normal landing by a Boeing 737 at the Colorado Springs airport turned abruptly into a disaster, attention is focusing on the possibility that a powerful rotor of wind sent the plane into a twisting six-second nosedive.

Bill Bennett, an Australian hang-gliding pioneer who introduced the modern controllable hang glider to the United States in 1969 and, as the "Birdman," helped popularize the fledgling sport through exhibitions and publicity stunts, has died. He was 73. Mr. Bennett, who at one time owned the world's largest hang-glider manufacturing company, died Oct. 7 in an ultralight accident at Lake Havasu City Airport in Arizona, said Margo Brown, his fiancM-ie. Brown said Mr. Bennett, who was being recertified in a powered hang glider, was taking off with instructor Drew Reeves when the glider lost power and dived into the ground.

Bill Bennett, an Australian hang-gliding pioneer who introduced the modern controllable hang glider to the United States in 1969 and, as the "Birdman," helped popularize the fledgling sport through exhibitions and publicity stunts, has died. He was 73. Mr. Bennett, who at one time owned the world's largest hang-glider manufacturing company, died Oct. 7 in an ultralight accident at Lake Havasu City Airport in Arizona, said Margo Brown, his fiancM-ie. Brown said Mr. Bennett, who was being recertified in a powered hang glider, was taking off with instructor Drew Reeves when the glider lost power and dived into the ground.

Dear Dr. Donohue: I am a 38-year-old male and have been physically active my entire life. I walk, run, lift weights and play ice hockey. Recently I have had frequent injuries. I tore a chest muscle, strained right and left groin muscles, strained a calf muscle, tore my right plantaris muscle, pulled a neck muscle, strained my left biceps muscle and pulled a forearm muscle. I have tried vitamins, increased fluid intake and stretching, to no avail. My doctor suggests that I am simply getting old. Your thoughts?

Pilot Sam Fine waited for the snatch. Then the towline jerked, signaling the start of the symbiotic relationship between the glider packed with troops and supplies and the massive cargo plane that would pull it from North Africa across the Mediterranean to Sicily. The two aircraft climbed together into the midnight skies of World War II, soaring for four hours guided by wit until the moonlight revealed the southern Italian island's coastline. Fine then released the cord. "Then we were on our own," said Fine, about 30 at the time, reliving minutes when his glider adeptly challenged gravity on July 10, 1943.

Thinking big: It used to be that Chicago-based Boeing was the largest commercial aircraft manufacturer in the world, a distinction it held for decades. But now Airbus, based in Toulouse, France, is king of the hill, thanks to a small foreign carrier based in a small Middle Eastern country. Emirates Airlines of Dubai, which is one of the seven emirates, or states, of the United Arab Emirates, will purchase 41 planes from Airbus in a deal worth $8.5 billion. That put Airbus over the top. Although Emirates currently has a fleet of only 44 jetliners -- American and Delta each have more than 500 planes -- it has made quite a name for itself.

It's hard to believe so many momentous events took place over such a short span of time. Charles Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic solo in 1927. Amelia Earhart vanished attempting to circle the globe in 1937. Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in 1947. The Boeing 707 made its maiden voyage in 1954. Neil Armstrong walked on the moon in 1969. These milestones and hundreds more reflect the giant strides of aviation, which many consider the defining technology of the 20th century, producing some of the most amazing machines developed by humankind.

An armed man seized a single-engine aircraft from an airfield southeast of Frankfurt on Sunday afternoon and threatened to crash into the European Central Bank as he circled above the city's financial center, police said. He landed safely two hours later. While two military jets and a police helicopter shadowed the plane, the hijacker told officials and journalists in contact with him by radio and cell phone that he wanted to draw attention to one of the astronauts killed in the 1986 Challenger space shuttle disaster.

His first sight of airplanes winging their way from bumpy runways into the clouds at a 1910 air show changed James H. Doolittle`s mind about a career as a mining engineer, the 88-year-old war hero said Saturday. "The switch couldn`t have been more extreme -- from under the earth to into the skies," the retired Air Force lieutenant general said in an interview. Doolittle was in Dallas for Saturday`s dedication of the Doolittle Military Aviation Research Library, part of the History of Aviation Collection at the University of Texas at Dallas.

Thinking big: It used to be that Chicago-based Boeing was the largest commercial aircraft manufacturer in the world, a distinction it held for decades. But now Airbus, based in Toulouse, France, is king of the hill, thanks to a small foreign carrier based in a small Middle Eastern country. Emirates Airlines of Dubai, which is one of the seven emirates, or states, of the United Arab Emirates, will purchase 41 planes from Airbus in a deal worth $8.5 billion. That put Airbus over the top. Although Emirates currently has a fleet of only 44 jetliners -- American and Delta each have more than 500 planes -- it has made quite a name for itself.

Sugar gliders are becoming extremely popular these days. Many owners have more than one of these amazing creatures. However, many people don't even know they exist. A sugar glider is a nocturnal animal. It's a member of the marsupial family, so it has a pouch for carrying its young. It was named for its desire for sweet things, and because it has a gliding membrane like flying squirrels. Sugar gliders come from Australia, Indonesia, Tasmania and Papua New Guinea. These animals aren't suitable pets for everyone.

I have always created a name for myself -- an outrageous one. So it says in a new book by Frank McKinney, 38, who builds spec homes the size of small countries in Palm Beach County. Today, his outrageous name is in the news again. Not because he's sold another BIG $30 million manse, which he did in 2000, but because he's written a BIG book, appropriately called Make it BIG! 49 Secrets for Building a Life of Extreme Success (John Wiley & Sons, $24.95). The hefty tome, compiled with the obligatory ghost writer, is a combo autobiography and how-to guide on making it ... you know ... BIG. See McKinney in the flesh at a Palm Beach book signing on Friday, or check out the book cover to witness his signature look: jeans, Versace vest and Fabio locks, which he has professionally colored -- blond streaks -- every three months.